When you step onto the court, pitch or course as a professional athlete, you put your body on the line. It’s how you earn your keep. So, even a minor disability is potentially a major problem.
Whether your injury is contact-related, repetitive motion or heaven forbid, career-ending, you need to protect yourself.
Even if you’re not one of the highest-paid professional athletes, you need to protect your salary.
So, you might be asking…
Health Insurance for Professional Athletes - MediCompare
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You want the best possible treatment that will protect your livelihood and get you back to work ASAP. When shopping around, make sure you find the best health insurance policy that, in the event of an injury, will cover:
Many providers class professionals as those receiving any fee, whether it’s a donation or ‘benefit in kind’ from participation in their sport. ‘Participation’ is seen as playing, coaching, or training at club, county, national or international levels.
As a professional athlete, you will want disability insurance. Whether you are starting out or in the prime of your career and in need of high-limit coverage. Getting the right policy is vitally important.
The underwriting of athletic disability insurance is not usually handled by traditional insurance providers. So you might need to search a little harder but there are some very good insurers out there.
In some sports like golf and tennis, top athletes often buy/arrange their own insurance. Hopefully, that won’t be the case for you.
Professional Athlete Health Insurance have similar exclusions to the health insurance policies mere mortals receive. Exclusions can run from GP service to general dental practitioner and vision testing to sleep disorders.
This is where reading the small print or the Terms and Conditions is so important.
Pay an additional premium to extend your cover to include some pre-existing conditions.
The list will most like differ from provider to provider and in some cases, you may choose up to two of their outlined conditions.
One provider included examples or groupings that would be allowed such as acne and diabetes or asthma and hypertension.
Generally, there is an annual limit of what the providers will cover cost-wise for these conditions. Usually around £1,000.
And usually, this limit will roll-up year after year to a maximum of £10,000 over 10 years. In most cases, this roll-up is only allowed if you have taken no breaks in your coverage during that period.
Along with the astronomical professional athlete salaries, the cost of covering such a valuable asset has too. Take, for instance, a sports team that has offered guaranteed contracts. If one of their star athletes gets injured, even temporarily, the team could face huge losses. For that reason, the insurance costs are just as influential as TV contracts or ticket sales when it comes to the economics of the business.
As mentioned above, make sure whatever policy you choose will compensate you even if you are one the most highly-compensated athletes in your field. And one that allows you to live the lifestyle you’ve become accustomed to.
Many providers offer several levels of private hospitals that will vary in cost, depending on the premium-rating of that facility.
Underwriters follow a different pre-determined set of guidelines for each sport. The risk inherent in your sport is a determining factor. More contact and greater risk of injury and/or greater risk of very costly injury push up policy costs.
Often a 1-4 risk rating system is used to fairly price professional athlete insurance policies. Low-risk sports such as Darts or Angling = level 1. Whereas, Downhill skiing and Skydiving, considered the highest risk, are therefore rated = level 4.
Excess – Choose a higher or larger excess. The policy ‘excess’ is the amount that you agreed to pay towards the cost of a claim. For instance, if you chose a £500 excess per treatment claim, for one eligible claim cost of £5,000, you would pay the first £500 and your provider would pay the rest – £4500. The larger the excess the lower your premium. Ask for comparison quotes when you shop for coverage.
Private Hospital – Choose one of the lower-level private hospitals that still offers excellent care but not all the extras.
Team Insurance – Sometimes a provider can arrange to cover an entire team. This then lowers the cost of each athlete’s policy.
Pre-Existing Conditions – Do not include the pre-existing conditions option.
See also sports team insurance.
